Programming Quotes - Page 26

• Not having a schedule is OK if it's your PhD and you plan to spend 14 years on the thing, or if you're a programmer working on the next Duke Nukem and we'll ship when we're good and ready. But for almost any kind of real business, you just have to know how long things are going to take, because developing a product costs money.

  Joel Spolsky

  Real, Years, Long

  4 Copy quote

• Something is usable if it behaves exactly as expected.

  Joel Spolsky

  Behave, Expected, Ifs

  "Usability in One Easy Step (First Draft)". Article by Joel Spolsky, www.joelonsoftware.com. March 7, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The power efficiency of computing has improved by a factor of a billion from the ENIAC computer of the 1950s to today's handheld devices. Fundamental physics indicates that it should be possible to compute even another billion times more efficiently. That would put the power of all of today's present computers in the palm of your hand. That says to me that the age of computing really hasn't even begun yet.

  R. Stanley Williams

  Hands, Age, Fundamentals

  5 Copy quote

• We just have to come in every morning and somehow, launch the editor.

  Joel Spolsky

  Morning, Editors, Every Morning

  "Fire And Motion". Article by Joel Spolsky, www.joelonsoftware.com. January 6, 2002.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• What is a decision? It's a tool to remove confusion! Are you confused? If so, then make the decision and let's move on!

  Brian Valentine

  Confused, Moving, Confusion

  4 Copy quote

• Writing code is not production, it's not always craftsmanship though it can be, it's design.

  Joel Spolsky

  Writing, Design, Code

  7 Copy quote

• Technology will save us if it doesn't wipe us out first.

  Pete Seeger

  Technology, Wipe, Firsts

  "We Shall Overcome: An Hour with Legendary Folk Singer & Activist Pete Seeger". Interview with Amy Goodman, www.democracynow.org. September 4, 2006.

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• When I was 9, I went to a birthday party. We were supposed to see a cowboy movie, but the programming got screwed up and we saw 'The Bad Seed' instead. Horrifying. For years I was frightened of girls with pigtails.

  Robert Englund

  Girl, Party, Cowboy

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what to rewrite (and reuse)

  Eric S. Raymond

  Writing, Reuse, Programmers

  Eric S. Raymond (2001). “The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary”, p.24, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

  56 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every good work of software starts by scratching a developers personal itch.

  Eric S. Raymond

  Good Work, Very Good, Software

  Eric S. Raymond (2001). “The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary”, p.23, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Any one who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin. For, as has been pointed out several times, there is no such thing as a random number - there are only methods to produce random numbers, and a strict arithmetic procedure of course is not such a method.

  John von Neumann

  Numbers, Sin, Arithmetic

  "Various techniques used in connection with random digits" by John von Neumann in "Monte Carlo Method" edited by A.S. Householder, G.E. Forsythe and H.H. Germond, 1951.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• We are born into a world in which sexual possibilities are narrowly circumscribed. . . . We are programmed by the culture as surely as rats are programmed to make the arduous way through the scientist's maze, and that programming operates on every level of choice and action.

  Andrea Dworkin

  Choices, Feminist, Mazes

  6 Copy quote

• Belief is no substitute for arithmetic.

  Henry Spencer

  Science, Belief, Arithmetic

  4 Copy quote

• Adding last-minute features, whether in response to competitive pressure, as a developer's pet feature, or on the whim of management, causes more bugs in software than almost anything else.

  John Robbins

  Pet, Requirements, Lasts

  John Robbins (2000). “Debugging Applications: Microsoft”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If we play genie and grant client wishes, we are apt to construct castles of code in the air.

  Larry Constantine

  Play, Air, Wish

  8 Copy quote

• The job of the average manager requires a shift in focus every few minutes. The job of the average software developer requires that the developer not shift focus more often than every few hours.

  Steve McConnell

  Teamwork, Jobs, Average

  Steve McConnell (1997). “Software Project Survival Guide”, p.45, Microsoft Press

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Even when you have skilled, motivated, hard-working people, the wrong team structure can undercut their efforts instead of catapulting them to success. A poor team structure can increase development time, reduce quality, damage morale, increase turnover, and ultimately lead to project cancellation.

  Steve McConnell

  Teamwork, Hard Work, People

  Steve McConnell (1996). “Rapid Development”, p.297, Microsoft Press

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• Software projects fail for one of two general reasons: the project team lacks the knowledge to conduct a software project successfully, or the project team lacks the resolve to conduct a project effectively.

  Steve McConnell

  Teamwork, Two, Failing

  Steve McConnell (1997). “Software Project Survival Guide”, p.7, Microsoft Press

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• In software, the chain isn't as strong as its weakest link; it's as weak as all the weak links multiplied together.

  Steve McConnell

  Teamwork, Strong, Together

  Steve McConnell (2004). “Code Complete”, p.51, Pearson Education

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Poor management can increase software costs more rapidly than any other factor.

  Barry Boehm

  Teamwork, Poor Management, Cost

  "Planning Smarter: Creating Blueprint-Quality Software Specifications". Book by Tyson Gill (p. 14), 2002.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The best meetings get real work done. When your people learn that your meetings actually accomplish something, they will stop making excuses to be elsewhere.

  Larry Constantine

  Teamwork, Real, People

  6 Copy quote

• A dynamic duo who work well together can be worth any three people working in isolation.

  Larry Constantine

  Teamwork, People, Together

  31 Copy quote

• Applicants must also have extensive knowledge of Unix, although they should have sufficiently good programming taste to not consider this an achievement.

  Hal Abelson

  Should Have, Achievement, Taste

  6 Copy quote

• All the shopping malls and restaurants and airports are riddled with low-fidelity loudspeakers, which apparently have developed the ability to reproduce by themselves; these are all connected to a special programming service called Music That Nobody Really Likes, and you cannot get away from it.

  Dave Barry

  Funny, Music, Airports

  5 Copy quote

• Friends, much as in real life, are often more trouble than their worth.

  Scott Meyers

  Real, Real Life, Trouble

  9 Copy quote